The Ghost of Christmas Present
by hydromaniac3333
Summary: John/OC Though obvious to the rest of the team, the romance between the Aussie and Rachel has not yet been discovered. so what happens during this Christmas Case?


A/N IMPORTANT INFO! PLEASE READ!

In this fic, John Brown is only ASSOCIATED with the church, as in, he does exorcisms and jobs for them, and is not in any way a priest or anything.

I laughed, listening to John Brown attempt to speak without his thick Australian accent. He was failing miserably, and it was ridiculously adorable.

Teasing me, John gave up attempting to suppress his accent and spoke with his normal dialect once again. "What, is something funny?" he asked, obviously knowing how hilarious he was.

This, of course, only made me laugh harder. "John... Stop! I'm... going to... die!" I wheezed through the laughter, tears in my eyes.

John laughed too, grinning at me.

"Alright you two! Quit making out for a second so I can come in!" Monk's familiar voice rang out through the room as the door swung open, and Monk himself stumbled into the room, his eyes screwed shut in an attempt to shield himself from whatever John and I were supposedly doing.

I sighed, rolling my eyes as I took deep breaths, calming down from my laughing fit. It was a widely known joke amongst my friends at Shibuya Psychic Research that John and I were secretly in love, although it couldn't be farther from the truth. I mean, I suppose it was half true, seeing as I was madly in love with John, but it would be insane for me to believe that he actually felt the same way about me. I mean, he was an adorably handsome, blonde, sweet, genuinely amazing guy, whereas I was... well, me. My long, curly brown hair framed my pale face, making my bright green eyes stand out, but I was nothing to get excited about. Certainly nothing that would catch John's eye.

"Oh, shut up, Monk." I grumbled, my good mood having been destroyed with the cruel joke. I glared at the wall, looking away in an attempt to hide the blush that had formed on my cheeks.

"Someone's sensitive all of the sudden!" Monk smirked, winking at me.

I blushed even brighter, however continued to glare at Monk. "I assume that you have a reason for coming in here, or did you just feel like ruining my perfectly good mood?" I asked, trying to change the subject.

"Yeah, as a matter of fact, I did. You know it's the Christmas season, and I still need to buy you a present. Anything you had in mind?" he asked, directing the question at the both of us.

"Monk! You haven't bought your presents yet? It's already December 23!" I said, unable to believe how long Monk could procrastinate.

"Sheesh, you don't have to yell..." he mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "I'm perfectly aware of what day it is." he sniffed indignantly.

"Rach is right, you know... you probably shouldn't have waited this long." John said, rubbing his neck in a similar fashion to Monk.

My face heated up at John's words. I mean, he wasn't the first person to call me by my nickname, however most people simply called me by my full name, "Rachel". The fact that I used to live in America made it easier for me to speak with John, seeing as my first language was English, and he was from Australia, where they spoke English. I was perfectly fluent in Japanese, however, which I suppose was a good thing because I lived in Japan now...

"Man, would you two stop ganging up on me already?" he yelled, obviously a little embarrassed, before storming out of the room in an exaggerated manner, trying to at least try for humor in his moment of despair.

John and I looked at each other and laughed.

"Well, it's getting late. I should probably go home. I think most of the others have." John sighed, standing up and offering me a hand to help me do the same.

"What do you mean? I thought that Naru told us to stay here while they checked out the complex?" I asked, cocking my head to one side and referring to the abandoned mansion that was to be the new location of our new case. I still couldn't believe that man had the audacity to ask us to take a case two days before Christmas... or that Naru has actually accepted it!

"Well..." John drew out the word guiltily, turning a little bit red. "Mai actually texted me a few hours ago, telling me that Naru said it was okay to leave whenever we felt like. It had taken less time to examine the building than expected, and everyone had left early after they finished."

"Wait..." I said, piecing what he had said together. "So why didn't you tell me earlier?"

John turned an even deeper shade of red. "Well I guess it was because..." he said trailing off, however not looking like he wanted to finish his sentence because he was too embarrassed.

"Because why, John?" I asked in an accusatory tone.

"Because I wanted to keep spending time with you!" John blurted, however looked as if he regretted the words the moment they came out of his mouth.

I looked up at him, blushing brighter than I had all night. "O-Oh..." I stammered, unable to think of a more intelligent response.

"S-Sorry..." John stuttered, now looking anywhere but at me.

Although I was unable to think of something better to say, mostly because I was in a sort of shock caused by John's words, I still needed to do something so that John wouldn't take my silence the wrong way. I noted that his hand was still extended to help me up from my position on the ground, and watched John's eyes grow slightly wider as I reached up and took it. His hand was warm, but the contact with John's skin still gave me goosebumps.

"N-no, it's alright. I... I like spending time with you." The words rushed out of my mouth, as I was trying to say them as quickly as possible before I could rethink them.

John looked shocked at my words, as his eyes widened even more, and his mouth fell open a little bit. He must've been pretty taken aback by my words, as his hand went slack from surprise just as I began to hoist myself up off of the floor, and he released my hand from his protective grip, causing me to tumble towards the cold, hard floor. He must've realized what he'd done though, because with blinding speed, he reached out to catch me before I collided with the ground. Fortunately enough for me, I felt his arms wrap around my waist only a moment before I had expected to feel the pain of impact. Before I had a chance to blink, John was already pulling me back up towards him, and I was safely wrapped in his arms and pressed up against his chest, with his strong arms still around my waist.

With adrenaline pumping hard through both of our veins at my close call, we were both breathing fairly heavily, and were, having been wrapped up in the moment, still pressed up against each other several long seconds later. Having finally realized this, we looked at each other and noticed that by doing so, we were so close that our noses had bumped. Both of our faces flamed red as we released each other.

"S-S-Sorry!" John hurried, stumbling over his words in the process. "Oh, erm, I r-r-really should get g-going then!" he continued, wanting to get as far away from me as humanly possible.

I nodded frantically, flustered beyond words.

"Y-Yeah, me t-too!"

John nodded too, his face still tomato red. He stumbled to the door, out into the lobby, and out the front door in a matter of seconds, still turning around to give me an embarrassed wave goodbye before disappearing into the snowy night.

"John, why don't you give Rachel a hand placing the thermometers throughout the main rooms." Naru said emotionlessly, before turning to talk with Lin.

John turned to look at me from across the room, where he had been talking with a jealous looking Masako who was glaring at Mai. He was wearing his greenish blue plaid button up shirt, which made his eyes stand out, and just made him look all the more handsome. He nodded at Naru before walking over to me with a blush on his face, obviously thinking about last night's events.

_We were so close... I could smell the spearmint toothpaste that he uses..._

I shook my head, trying to clear it from the frivolous thoughts that were dancing through it.

_Who needs sugarplums when you have John Brown? _I mused to myself, thinking of the line, "Visions of sugarplums danced through their heads," from the old Christmas story, before taking on a more serious expression and trying to think about something that WASN'T related to the attractive Australian, John Brown.

This proved to be difficult, however, when the Australian in question popped up mere inches from my face, his bright, sapphire blue eyes gazing into mine. I blushed lightly, embarrassed to have been caught daydreaming... again. It had become an unfortunate habit of mine- one that Naru frequently reprimanded me for.

"Let's get to work then, Rach!" he chirped, taking my hand and tugging me out of the room before I could spare another thought. Mostly because my mind was still lingering on the fact that he had used his nickname for me again...

_Get ahold of yourself, Rachel!_

Of course, as soon as I had managed to tear my mind away from how lovely it sounded when John said my name, I noticed that he was holding my hand. He was holding my hand! I mentally squealed to myself, unable to control the stereotypical teenage girl that lived within my mind.

"So first, I think Naru said that we should go to the kitchen." John said, leading the way to the kitchen, while I walked dazedly behind him.

Once we arrived in the kitchen, John and I set to work taking the temperature readings so that later, we would be able to know if there were any temperature fluctuations that indicated a spiritual presence. I peeked over my shoulder at the blue eyed blonde, who was grinning and even whistling quietly. John was a generally happy guy, but he was especially chipper today.

I grinned, looking over at him. "What's got you in such a good mood?" I inquired.

He turned around to look at me, smiling widely. "Why not be in a good mood? It is Christmas Eve, afterall."

I laughed, amused. "I suppose you're right."

"All set..." John said, placing the last thermometer and jotting something down on a pad of paper.

"Same here. Should we move onto the bedroom?" I asked absentmindedly, not really thinking about what I was saying.

John blushed furiously.

"W-What?" he asked, looking intensely uncomfortable.

"What?" I asked innocently, not realizing how John had misinterpreted my words. "That _is _the room with the second strongest presence in the house, according to the old man who hired us, right?"

John sighed with relief.

"Oh, yeah."

I made my way towards the hallway, John trotting along after me. I stopped suddenly, however, when the lights all flickered out and I heard a loud moaning emanating from a location that I couldn't exactly pinpoint. In fact, it sounded like it was coming from every direction.

Normally, signs of a spirit didn't show up nearly as quickly as this, and the fact that they were made me on edge.

"John, you hear that too, right?" I asked nervously, wanting to make sure that it wasn't just me.

I peeked over my shoulder and he nodded, before looking slowly around him to make sure that we were in no immediate danger. Suddenly, there was an ear-splitting crash, like a thousand porcelain plates breaking at once. I jumped into the air, surprised by the sound, and _immediately_ felt John's arms wrap around my waist from behind, pulling me into him as he took a protective stance and attempted to shield me from any incoming attacks.

The lights flickered back on, although dimmer than before. John and I remained frozen for another full minute or two, watching for any other signs of danger before he finally released me. Normally, I would have been flustered at the close contact, however I was too focused on the matter at hand. The others all dashed into the hallway from various rooms connected to it, asking if the others had heard the same noise or if they knew what had broken. We all shook our heads, signifying that we didn't know, and we all dashed down the hallway, looking for what had caused the shattering noise. Eventually, we happened upon what appeared to be a little girl's room. The walls were a feminine fuchsia, however had been abandoned and the wallpaper was beginning to peel. There were several elaborate dollhouses littered about the room, and an array of porcelain dolls lying facedown on the floor. Naru, being the fearless leader that he is, stepped forward and turned one of them upwards to reveal a shattered face.

"That must have been what caused the shattering noise," Monk noted grimly.

"Are we looking at a poltergeist?" John asked seriously.

Naru shook his head.

"I don't believe so. A poltergeist wouldn't have made the moaning that we all heard in the hallway. This is something different."

I shivered, looking away from the shattered pieces of porcelain that littered the floral rug. One of the pieces that had fallen from the face after Naru had moved it was nothing more than the doll's violet glass eye. It stared up at me, seemingly burning into my own pair of emerald green eyes. I looked away, feeling uncomfortable and wanting nothing more than to get as far away from those dolls as I could.

"Rachel?" John asked, looking concerned as he noticed me turning away.  
"Mm?" I said, closing my eyes and trying to at least make it appear that I didn't feel sick to my stomach.  
It obviously didn't work, because John only looked more worried. "Are you alright? You look a little pale. Here," he reached out, grabbing my shoulders and gently steering me outside into the hallway and away from the dolls. "Better?" he asked softly, looking into my eyes with an adorable amount of concern. My back was pressed up against the wall, while John continued to hold my shoulders.  
I nodded, opening my eyes now that I felt a lot less queasy. I even forced a weak smile up at him, seeing as he was considerably taller than me.  
"So what was that about?" he raised his eyebrows curiously.  
"Oh." I blushed lightly, a bit embarrassed by the answer. "Well, it's no tragic secret. I've just never liked dolls much after..." I trailed off, my throat constricting a bit and making it hard to talk.  
"After...?"  
I sighed, taking a deep breath in preparation. "Did I ever tell you how I got into the ghost hunting business, John? When I was seven, I had my first encounter with a poltergeist. With any ghost, for that matter. Well, as far as I know, anyway. A particularly vengeful spirit had possessed my neighbors' daughter's favorite porcelain doll, and had forced her to kill her entire family, and then herself. She committed suicide by jumping off of the roof of their house. And I saw the whole thing." I said, turning my head away again, trying to fight the tears stinging at the corner of my eyes, threatening to come rushing down my face and ruin my composure.  
John's mouth had fallen into a small 'o', as he watched me with disbelief. "Rachel, I'm so sorry, I didn't know..."  
I shook my head. "No, it's alright. I don't blame you." I looked down again, taking more deep breaths. "Ever since then, I've been able to see spirits. And I vowed that I would never let something as horrible as what happened to my neighbors happen to anyone else, and then I found Shibuya Psychic Research. It seemed like the perfect place for me to finally fulfill my promise, and I've been working here ever since. It's been hard sometimes, especially realizing how useless I am, but I'm grateful that Naru keeps me around. I'm not really sure why- I mean, I can't perform exorcisms or anything, so I'm not really much help to the team. But I'm still thankful that I can try." My voice broke on the last word, betraying my true emotions. John remained silent for several long moments. Suddenly, I was pressed up against John's chest in a warm embrace. John's chin was pressed against the top of my head, as he murmured, "You were only seven... so young, and so long to have to deal with something like this..." he murmured, before reaching out and placing a warm, comforting hand on my cheek.  
I looked up in surprise, finally meeting his eyes. I felt a small tear slide down my face, and John rubbed his thumb across my cheek and wiped it away with a sad smile. "I'd give up my life to make sure you don't have to go through that again…okay?" He said gently.

I blushed brightly, surprised by the gravity of his promise. I nodded my head, however something about even the slightest possibility of John's life being in danger made my blood run cold. "Hopefully it won't come to that," I said nervously.

We sat, talking quietly for what must have been at least an hour, however neither of us really had our minds on the conversation itself. I was jiggling my knees up and down, a nervous tendency I had picked up years ago, as I chewed on my lip worriedly. Suddenly, I felt a warm hand placed on top of mine, and I stopped jiggling my knees and looked up into John's sapphire blue eyes. He smiled down at me, causing my cheeks to redden.

"It's going to be alright, Rach. I know it will. Try to get some sleep- it'll make things go by a lot faster." he offered, attempting to lessen my nervousness.

I gave a sarcastic laugh. "If we fall asleep, we'll be sitting ducks for any spirit that gets anywhere near us."

"No we wouldn't. I only suggested that _you _go to sleep. I'd stay awake and be on the lookout for spirits."

"But John, aren't you tired too?" I asked, looking up at his eyes, an unreadable expression lying within them.

He nodded, hardly detectably. "I suppose, but I'll be fine."

I shook my head vigorously. "Well, that's sweet of you, but maybe you should get the sleep. I can always be the lookout instead of you, and then you'd finally get some sleep."

"That's kind of you, but what would you do if there was a spirit? You don't know any chants or have any exorcism powers… how would you protect yourself?" he asked with a forced smile.

"I-" I paused, trying to come up with a reasonable response. "Well…. Monk taught me that one chant!" I offered, knowing I had lost this argument.

John chuckled quietly. "And I'm sure it would be a lot of help, but then what kind of a guy would I be? My pride as a man would be shattered!" he joked.

That was one thing I loved about John. The way that he could crack a joke and make me smile under any circumstances. I scoffed, rolling my eyes. "Fine, you win." I grinned as I leaned back against the wall and wrapped my arms around myself. Sure, it was uncomfortable, but there was no other option. I sure as heck wasn't going to sleep on the ruby red bed that was already in the room… who knew what had crawled into that after it's years of disuse! I let my eyes flutter closed, but I knew there was no way that I would be able to sleep in this position.

After several long, uncomfortable minutes, John chuckled and tapped my shoulder. I opened my eyes and looked up at him. "Mm?"

"You know you're not going to get any sleep sitting up like that."

"And you know that I'm not going to get any sleep when I'm trapped inside of a room inside of a haunted mansion."

He rolled his eyes, sliding his legs from their crossed position so that they were lying out flat and straight in front of him. Gently, he reached out and took my far shoulder, turning me and pressing my head down so that I was curled up against his side, with my head resting carefully on his chest. "Better?" he asked, his voice causing his chest to vibrate.

I nodded, yawning quietly, feeling lethargic already. Before I realized what I was doing, I had snuggled even closer to him, seeking heat as the chill of night began to take its toll on my thin t-shirt. Just before I drifted off to sleep, I felt his arm wrap around my shoulders, pulling me into him even tighter and providing even more warmth in a protective motion.

I awoke the next morning still curled up against John's side, however noticed that he had taken off his plaid button-up shirt and draped it gently over my shoulders in an attempt to stop what must have been my intense shivering. I noted that John must have been wearing a t-shirt under the plaid button-up, as that was what he was wearing now. His arms were still wrapped around me, and my head was still resting gently on his chest. I could feel the slow rise and fall of his chest as he breathed, and I could hear his heartbeat. Strong, like I knew John was. Something about the way it skipped a beat when I started to move my head made the butterflies in my stomach go crazy.

"Morning, John." I murmured as I began to lift my head, however froze when I heard his heart made an unusually loud, _thu-thump! _

I smiled to myself, knowing that it was probably just me hearing things, however couldn't stop the grin from spreading across my face.

"Someone's pretty smiley this morning." John smirked as I finally lifted my head high enough to look up at his face. "Good dream?" he asked curiously.

I nodded, thinking back to my unusually vivid dream with a blush. It had, of course, been about John.

I saw John smirk again, more to himself than anyone, and I rose my eyebrow suspiciously. "What, do I have something on my face?" I asked self consciously.

"No, it's just…." he paused, looking at me out of the corner of his eye. "…You know you talk in your dreams, right?"

My face must have gone as white as a sheet, and then as red as a fire engine in a matter of seconds. "I-I do?"

He nodded, still smirking.

"W-What did I s-s-say?" I stammered, mortified to learn this about myself. _What could I have said? Oh no… I hope I didn't say anything embarrassing, especially about my feelings for him!_

He turned to meet my eyes, however kept his mouth shut, that smirk still on his lips.

"Seriously, John! What did I say!"

"That's for me to know, and for you to wish that you knew."

"John!" I shouldered him in a way that I hoped was at least a little painful.

He laughed as I dragged myself off of him and he stood up, offering a hand down to me to help me up too. With one final stubborn glare, I accepted it, my laziness outweighing my newly formed grudge. He lifted me up effortlessly, and I wondered how he managed to do it. To be so strong, funny, and oh-so-dashing. To be so… perfect. I shook my head vigorously, trying to clear the frivolous thoughts from my mind.

The sudden banging on the door snapped both of us out of our morning daze mere moments before Monk, Naru, and the others and burst in, some panting from the exertion of having to break down the door.

"They're alright!" Monk called, rushing up to me and pulling me into a tight hug. I smiled, patting his back awkwardly as a sort of sign of thanks, however trying to not let Monk get the wrong idea that I was at all interested, romantically, in him.

"How did you get locked in here anyway?" Ayako demanded, looking a bit taken aback.

"We ran in because we thought we saw someone run in here before us, and before we knew it, the door was slammed shut behind us and we were locked in." John explained.

"A rookie mistake." Naru grumbled, somehow emotionlessly, before continuing. "This was the final piece of the puzzle, Lin. There are no spirits here…" he trailed off, speaking especially loud, and finally drawing my attention to the fact that Lin wasn't in the room. Where he was, I didn't know. It seemed strange that Naru was talking to someone who wasn't even present, however.

With that thought, however, I heard a loud thunk in the hallway, as Lin brought a struggling man forcefully into the room, not sparing any effort to be gentle with him.

"Just as I suspected." Naru added with a satisfied smirk, one nothing like the one that John had had merely moments ago.

"What do you mean?" Ayako prompted, waiting for Naru to solve the mystery that had consumed our Christmas Eve.

"Care to explain, Mr. Kayazaki?" Naru asked, tearing the childish mask from the man's face, revealing his identity to us all. We all gasped, mostly for dramatic effect, as we recognized the face of the very same man who had employed us to exterminate the spirits that he had _said _plagued this house.

The man lowered his head shamefully, however looked like he wasn't going to talk any time soon.

"Mr. Kayazaki was behind everything that we've witnessed in this house in the past twenty four hours. The moaning in the hallway, the broken dolls, everything." Naru explained.

"That would explain why the temperature hadn't dropped!" Mai added, piecing this mystery together as we spoke.

"Very good, Mai. He was also, as I suspect, behind locking Rachel and John in the bedroom over night- he was afraid that they'd seen him, and by the sounds of it, it seems that they had." he paused, taking a step towards the man. "Now the question is, why?"

The man finally cracked, looking broken and empty. "My daughter… and my wife… they're both gone, and I couldn't be alone… not today… not Christmas…" he murmured softly, as a tear slid down his cheek.

"Is that why you had us come here? Because you didn't want to be alone on Christmas?" Mai asked, sympathy plain in her voice.

The man nodded, and Naru made for the door. "We'd best start packing up, Lin." he said coldly, ignoring the man who had fallen to his knees in agony behind him.

"Naru, where are you going! This man still needs our help!" Mai called, looking angry that Naru had tried to leave.

"Mai, your lack of education never fails to astound me. The case is over- there were no spirits." Naru said, his tone patronizing.

She bristled, however controlled her anger fairly well.

"I understand that, Naru, but this man still needs our help. We can't just leave him alone in this big, creepy house. Not today of all days. Isn't the meaning of Christmas to share and spend time together?"

Naru looked away again. "Your emotions have gotten the better of you again, Mai. Come along, Lin. Let's get our stuff."

With that, he walked out of the room, Mai stomping her foot furiously while Monk tried to calm her down. Eventually, we invited the man, no matter how wrong his actions had been, to come back to the office with us in a final attempt to salvage what was left of our Christmas.

Mai had done a great job with the decorations, no matter how much Naru had been against the idea of them. Especially on such short notice, no less. A small Christmas tree glittered in the corner, casting a cheerful warm glow around the room, along with the holly and other lights that were littered about the room as well. There were even some presents under the tree, mostly placed by Mai in an attempt to complete the look of the room.

"Rachel?" John asked, waving his hand in front of my face as I stared off blankly, daydreaming again.

I jumped in surprise, causing John to chuckle.

"Sorry…" I groaned, mad that I'd done it again. This was, unfortunately, a habit of mine.

"It's alright." John smiled, his hair still tousled from where he had been running his fingers through it vigorously the night before. He had put his plaid button-up back on, and it contrasted nicely with the warm reds and whites in the room. A cheerful glow was cast across everyone's faces as they socialized, John and I in our own corner of the room. It was nice to be able to talk with John like this, where no one else was listening and making snide comments.

I looked at all of our friends laughing, and I was glad that I could share this beautiful moment with them. Even Mr. Kayazaki looked like he was having a good time. I turn to look back up at John, who I noticed had been looking at the same thing that I had.

"It's beautiful…" I murmured quietly.

"Yeah, you are." John answered, before immediately turning red. "I m-m-mean, yeah, you are _right_! I c-completely agree!" he stammered out, trying to save himself.

I looked up at him quizzically, oblivious to the not-so-hidden meaning in John's words.

"Thank you?" I said, phrasing it like a question because I was confused.

John blushed and looked away.

I noted that we had migrated across the room, and were now standing in the doorway to the kitchen. (Don't ask me why the SPR office had a kitchen… it was a mystery to me.) I quickly saw that Monk was missing from the room- he must have gone to go get more food. I was drawn from my reverie of sorts when I heard the others all giggling. I whipped my head around to look at them, trying to see what was so funny, and I realized they were all looking at John and I.

"Wha-?" I began, however stopped when I saw the completely embarrassed expression on John's face as he looked up. I followed his eyes, looking up as well, and realized what had been so embarrassing.

Apparently, when we migrated absentmindedly around the room, we now standing directly under a sprig of mistletoe that Mai had hung from the doorframe. We both looked at each other, our cheeks burning bright red as we stammered excuses.

When I saw Mai's expression brighten suddenly, I knew something was up, and I spun around and caught a glimpse of Monk, who really had been in the kitchen getting food, and now had to come back through the same doorway that John and I were trapped under in order to rejoin the group, winking at her. He walked past us on John's side, bumping into John in a way that was clearly not accidental, sending John stumbling towards me and accidentally colliding with me in a way that pinned me up against the wall. Our bodies weren't the only things that had collided, however, I realized with an intense burning in my cheeks, because our lips seemed to have collided as well.

My eyes were wide open in shocked surprise, and I felt John's warm lips freeze on top of mine. A fraction of a second later, however, I was stunned even more when he suddenly wound his arms around my waist, and his lips began to move, gliding over mine in an intricate dance that it seemed only we knew the steps to. My eyes involuntarily fluttered closed as I was lost in the moment that I had been fantasizing over for months now. I saw a thousand fireworks explode behind my eyelids, and I felt John's fingers tangling in my hair, as his other hand remained on my back, pressing against it in order to make sure there was no room left between us. John cocked his head to the side, deepening the kiss just before the others all started to cheer. It was easy to forget they were even there, and I was too wrapped up in the kiss to notice as I wrapped my arms around the back of John's neck, stretching up on my tip-toes in order to make our heights at least a bit closer.

Eventually, the need for oxygen became too great and we broke apart, breathing heavily. John leaned his head against mine, our foreheads touching as he gave me another one of his dazzlingly brilliant smiles.

"Do you want to know what you said last night when you were sleeping?" he breathed, gazing into my eyes.

I nodded, biting my lip nervously.

He chuckled at the familiar movement, reaching out and stroking my cheek with his thumb. "It was my name. Just my name, but it still made me happy to know that I was in your dreams."

I blushed lightly, laughing quietly. "_This _feels like a dream… I've waited too long for this moment, and now I'm afraid that I'm going to wake up, and that it's all been a dream."

John grinned. "I'm not going anywhere, Rach. Looks like you're stuck with me for a little while."

"Perfect." I beamed, reaching up and kissing him again. John seemed just as happy as I was to be kissing again, as he wrapped his arms around me enthusiastically once more.

Sure enough, this would be a Christmas that I'd never forget.


End file.
